Pump out head

Strother85

Picked up my captiva 276 and have been spending a lot of time on it recently with much more planned.  With all of this boating I feel like we should utilize the pump out head that the boat has.  The problem is that I am scared to do so because I know nothing about these and there were no instructions with the boat.  This appears to be like a porta potty of sorts with a pump out hose going to the access port on the outside.  

Questions

1) Do I need to add any sort of chemicals, etc. to the holding tank?  What makes it "flush"?

2) Since I trailer, can I use the RV pump out station that they have at most state parks to pump out the head on the way out?

Thanks for your help...

DanD2

Yes, you should add chemicals.....any RV toilet chemical will do. As far as what makes it flush.....if it's a porta potty type, there should be a water lever on the side...I think? RV pump out station might work. Some of them do not have a whole lot of suction...trial and error.

Good luck

JoeStang

There is no "holding tank", the tank area on the toilet is where the waste resides. I havent pumped ours out yet because it wasnt really used at all last summer. I would heartily suggest no #2 if possible.

Make sure the large plastic screw-on cap is installed on the lower right corner, this is the cap for the lower part of the unit where the waste sits. Ours wasnt installed from the dealer and it would have been bad if we used it without that in place. You're right the directions are pathetic.

You should add a bottle of the waste treatment right into the bowl and fill up the water tank so you can rinse out the bowl as needed. Make sure to use nice clean fresh water for the tank, as you dont want that to get stinky smelling too.

I'm curious how well the pump out feature works for you, so please post up when you have it done.

Strother85

JoeStang said:

There is no "holding tank", the tank area on the toilet is where the waste resides. I havent pumped ours out yet because it wasnt really used at all last summer. I would heartily suggest no #2 if possible.

Make sure the large plastic screw-on cap is installed on the lower right corner, this is the cap for the lower part of the unit where the waste sits. Ours wasnt installed from the dealer and it would have been bad if we used it without that in place. You're right the directions are pathetic.

You should add a bottle of the waste treatment right into the bowl and fill up the water tank so you can rinse out the bowl as needed. Make sure to use nice clean fresh water for the tank, as you dont want that to get stinky smelling too.

I'm curious how well the pump out feature works for you, so please post up when you have it done.

After further examination, I realized the holding tank was actually the little tank ride under the portapotty as you said.  I have three kids under the age of 5 that will be out with me the majority of the time so I envision this thing getting used quite a bit.  I tend to launch in a lot of state parks which all have the RV pumpout station so I'm thinking I'll give those a shot.  Now if only I knew the process of doing that......love the boat, hate the joke of an instruction manual.

gslpro

It is pretty easy.  You unscrew the vacuum cap, place the nozzle against the vacuum fitting on the boat, and open the valve on the suction hose.  The only thing you will have to see is whether your porta potty will need the waste plate (the thing you pull open to go, close to keep the waste down) partially open to allow air flow, and decrease suction lock.  Watch some youtube videos on the process.  Very easy to do.

JoeStang

I also wonder how much it will get out of the tank, because its just a back-cut hose thats laying on the bottom, not a fitting at the bottom of the tank. I'd guess if there was any amount of solid stuff in there there would need to be a good amount of liquid to help it evacuate out.

Dream_Inn

I used to have one on our first boat (24' SeaRay).  We did many 10 day trips on it with two kids, hence it got a lot of use.  The pump out works pretty well.  You will want to flush (or run hose) into tank while flushing just to give a good rinse.  Then add a small amount of water with RV chemical.  I've also seen people disconnect the pumpout hose and just take the bottom portion to a proper dumping place when needed.

Definitely give a try.  I think you'll be happy when you have it figured out!  (I'm sure the family will too)